1. Field
The technology of the present application relates generally to load balancing systems, methods, and processes; and more specifically, to systems, methods, and processes that allow a distributed login network to securely transfer a user to an identified processing node based on identifiers to conserve processing resources.
2. Background
Shared, or networked, computers are relatively common. Many companies have intranets where workstations may access the same set of applications, processors, peripheral devices, and memories or storage, etc. (generically referred to as “equipment”). Still more people and companies access equipment over the Internet or other public access networks.
Referring now to FIG. 1, an exemplary prior art networked computer system 100 is provided. Networked computer system 100 may facilitate the operation of a number of applications and software packages. As shown, networked computer system 100 is a distributed system with a number of workstations 1021-n coupled to processing nodes 1041-m through one or more networks 106. Generally, there are many more workstations 102 than there are processing nodes 104, but workstations 102 may be the same or less than the processing nodes 104 in some systems. The processing nodes 104 may be coupled to a memory 108, which could be a single memory or a distributed memory. Processing nodes 104 may be connected to memory 108 through a second network not specifically shown. Workstations 102 may have applications and functionality loaded onto a particular user's workstation (fat or thick client) or hosted by a server that is accessed by the workstation (thin client). Workstations 102 may be a user terminal, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a mobile computer, a handheld computer, smartphone, personal digital assistant or the like. Processing nodes 104 generally include at least one and often several central processing units and memory. Processing nodes 104 may include servers, mainframes, or other conventional processors. Network 106 may be any conventional network such as a LAN, WAN, WLAN, WiFi, Cellular, Internet, other public or private network.
In many cases, networked computer system 100 includes a load balancer 110. Load balancer 110 would distribute the work requests, generically referred to as threads, from workstations 102 and transfer the thread to the processing node 104 based on conventional load balancing protocols. If all the processing nodes 104 are at full processing capacity, the thread may be held in a cache until a processor becomes available. However, prior to the processing nodes 104 being at full capacity, load balancer 110 may distribute the threads in any of a number of conventional mechanisms. Generally, the processing nodes 104 are selected based on factors, such as current processing capacity, routing capacity, throughput, processing return time, and the like. In other words, load balancer attempts to equate one or more design features associated with the system across the processing nodes. Processing nodes 104 may access memory 108, which could be a volatile or non-volatile memory, database, or other storage device, or other peripheral devices to process certain threads and the like. The processing nodes 104 may simply access memory 108 on an as needed basis. The processing node 104, however, generally functions more efficiently if the data, processing rules, or the like necessary to process the thread request is uploaded from memory 104 to a local memory associated with the specific processing node 104.
Moreover, conventional load balancers 110 generally transfers threads to particular processing nodes without regard for the user associated with the processing node because load balancer 110 does not have any information about the user. Processing nodes 104 in secure systems may require users to login or otherwise provide verification of rights to use the system, but the load balancer 110 does not have that information as the login procedures are often processed subsequent to the assignment of the thread to a particular processing node 104. Thus, potential efficiencies in the processing nodes 104 are lost.
There is, therefore, a need in the art to provide a load balancing system, especially in secure networks, where an unidentified user can be transferred from a randomly assigned processing node to an uniquely assigned processing node to provide more efficient use of the processing nodes.